Topic: Bike stalls on my 71 CB500 after trying to fix my neutral and oil light

[Jbenn77]

Hi new member here, was trying to figure out why my neutral light and oil pressure light both were in op so since they are near each other i figured why not try to kill two birds with one stone. So with the neutral light i took out a piece that is black and rubbery and has a screw going through it. Not too sure on what that part is actually called but that was the only thing i took out that involves working the neutral switch.

For the oil pressure switch all I've done for that was see that power does go to the wire when using the multi meter and when i put a test light onto the wire i would see the oil pressure light come on. So that appears to be just a bad switch. I also took it out.. so I'm not sure if that was a good or bad idea.

But now when i put everything back together I can get the neutral light to come on every time i shift into neutral, but now when i try to go into first the bike just stalls. For additional information when i had that cover off on the left side, for some reason i did pull in the clutch lever, so I'm not sure if that by any chance would've done some sort of damage to the clutch plates.

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated thank you.

[Ksgfx]

All of the 500s have the clutch adjuster on the left side, same cover you removed. It can be a bit finicky. My guess is either the adjuster is out of adjustment or the little ball bearing fell out from inside the adjuster. They also have a tendency to break so I would check it while you have it out.

[bryanj]

That black rubbery thing is plastic and called the switch rotor, has a brass strip on it that connects to the static part of the switch in neutral.
You probably lost the ball on the clutch pushrod

[Jbenn77]

That black rubbery thing is plastic and called the switch rotor, has a brass strip on it that connects to the static part of the switch in neutral.
You probably lost the ball on the clutch pushrod

OK appreciate the correction of the name of that part. Yikes that doesn't sound good considering i haven't touched the bike in two days.. assuming this ball isn't easy to find to replace if it comes to that?

[Jbenn77]

All of the 500s have the clutch adjuster on the left side, same cover you removed. It can be a bit finicky. My guess is either the adjuster is out of adjustment or the little ball bearing fell out from inside the adjuster. They also have a tendency to break so I would check it while you have it out.

Ok I'm gonna have to check this out soon, I haven't touched it in a couple days now so hopefully i can find this ball if that is the situation. Appreciate the advice

[bryanj]

Just a standard ball bearing like pushbike, size is in parts book, try cmsnl for on line partslist and find an online manual to describe how to adjust, then pump some grease into the zerk

[Jbenn77]

Just a standard ball bearing like pushbike, size is in parts book, try cmsnl for on line partslist and find an online manual to describe how to adjust, then pump some grease into the zerk

Adjusted the clutch cable that was on that case and now its all fine now thank you

[bryanj]

If you adjusted the cable and it worked you really need to take it apart and check all the bits as you can easily wreck the pushrod and lifter mech and those two would cost you well over$100

[Ksgfx]

Agree with bryanj. That is how the adjusters get broken. I would pull it off, check the adjuster and confirm the ball is there. I would also pull out the rod and make sure the ends look good and it's not broken.